Hollow protection
by MetaLucario
Summary: Ichigo loses control due to his desire to protect Orihime, and Ulquiorra wants to save her from the horror of Ichigo's bloodlust that Zangetsu is forcing into the teen's soul. Orihime wants to save Ichigo, but her heart is torn by her love for the dying fourth espada. Amidst this conflict, Ichigo is losing a battle against himself. What means more to him his instincts or Orihime?


A/N: This is kind of weird, I was sitting here looking at a poem I had written about my previous boyfriend when I was still dating him. My bleach obsessed mind turned it into this odd one-shot, so enjoy.

I own nothing

A cool breeze blows through my hair,

It felt weird just sitting there,

So far from you, from who you've become somehow

But I'm not sure I really want to see you again now,

When I think of you I can't help these tears streaming across my face,

I don't think this is what you intended, but my mind is still a haze,

I can't let you see me now, my pain only hurts you more.

I've been wondering what you were waiting for,

Now you're here I see,

That you're even more scared than me.

Whatever happens I hope life treats you well, to whatever end,

If I came back and cried to you would you wipe my tears again?

If I tell you how I feel will you hold me in your arms?

If I'm wounded would you break the source of harm?

It kills me not to know if you feel the same as me,

Yet I know that your pain you won't let me see

Is all suppressed for my protection from it;

From the thing inside that grows stronger with every hit,

And from every opponent that you face.

I realize that you feel you can never erase

the stains it has left on your soul, but can't you see?

You're still everything in the world to me.

Kurosaki-kun I can't take it, get up please

Get up and protect us with your former practiced ease.

Let me see your determined, scowling face

Not the cruel smirk that's settled in its place.

I know you think you can save me,

You think there's a chance and soon I'll see

That I can escape his web of control,

And eventually free my soul.

Why do you still fail to see,

to see that this monster is a part of me?

I can not ever escape, not now.

It's too late for that, all because of how

I dealt with him, with his persistence, in the past.

Each scar he leaves on my mind now, might be the last.

Can't you feel it, how close he and I have become?

He says he's going to swallow me up, that he's going to come;

Going to come to me in the middle of the night.

And there will be no one else around to hear my plight.

His echoing voice fills my every thought,

And I feel everything that ever I sought,

Sought to protect fade from my mind to be replaced.

Its all him now, these thoughts that I have faced.

Every second he devours my life, my very emotions

And I can somehow feel a forming devotion.

He tells me to follow my instincts, to kill and maim and slaughter,

And through it all, comes his voracious laughter.

I'll never escape his constantly increasing power,

Because with every brand new hour,

I grow closer to him, and him to me,

And in this closeness I now see,

If not for him I'd be nothing, gone, dead.

And so he remains, the ever growing presence in my head.

Dear woman there, can't you see?

The monster now is him, not me.

He screams he'll protect you, again

Then with no further thought that in

His mad desire for power to protect his friends

He has become the one that ends

His own innocence and tries to maim

What already broken down and lame.

He's in the clutches of his enemy,

and now the table turns to me.

Precious princess, why does he attempt to kill his own cousin so?

That look on your face says you as well do not know.

Is it the influence of his hollow power?

Or his own anger coming out in his darkest hour?

I'll protect you so you'll see,

That you have created a love in me.

In this empty heart full of despair,

You gave new light that prospered there.

Dear Orihime, don't cry for me now,

If you don't I swear this vow.

A vow that i will be reborn again,

In soul society, cleansed and from then

I will move on with you in my heart,

And in my death will I impart

My undying love for you,

And my secret respect for all that your friends do.

I see your heart now and I understand.

It wasn't there beneath your chest, but right here inside my hand.

Oh my king, are you mad?

Or does that carnage secretly make you glad?

Is that despair or glee I feel radiating in your reiastu?

Oh, kingy you want to tell me, I know you do.

I can feel it, and I know that you do as well,

You feel that urge deep inside begin to swell.

I tell you to kill, and you don't disappoint me now,

Yet, when it all boils down you lost the chance to him, but how?

I had you so close, and you had gone so far,

Under my influence that you could fight on par

With that Sosuke loser and yet, even with my power infused in you,

Still you and I lost the battle and I lost control too.

You wanted to save her from him, but in the end its said

That he saved her from you instead.

Dear king, don't you understand,

In this world I hold nothing in my pale hand,

But a broken sword torn in two,

By my desire to protect only you.

Yet still you fight, and I do too.

I still want more control over you.

Because now I see that it's what's needed of me,

That is, if I truly want you to be free.

He tells you lies that you believe without a doubt to his intentions,

Yet you fear the supposed maniacal inventions,

That form in my hollow mind, a mind that thinks only for you.

I've told you before that I am Zangetsu.

Why do you believe him over me, when I've always been the one who saved you?

I know I'm a hollow, and part of you, but also that I am a Zanpakuto too.

That quincy side wants to suppress you, on his quincy pride.

Is that pride the only thing keeping you on the losing side?

I want you to always win, and now I see,

That to get you to victory I must show you how truly hollow we can be.


End file.
